This invention relates generally to electrostatic air cleaning devices and, more particularly, to an improved method and apparatus for interlocking a pair of installed cells.
It is common practice in the manufacture of electronic air cleaner units to provide a heavy duty housing structure or cabinet into which a pair of electrostatic air cleaner cells are placed in side-by-side relationship for the purpose of purifying or cleaning the air that passes axially therethrough. As the air passes first through the ionizing section, the dust particles are caused to be charged with high voltage electricity. Those charged particles are then removed from the air stream as they pass through the collector section and are deposited on the negatively charged or grounded, collector plates. As the deposits of dust particles build up on these collector plates, it is periodically necessary to dean the units. This may be accomplished by removing the entire air cleaner unit including the housing structure with its contained cells, and washing the dust deposits from the collector plates by use of a pressurized air or water stream. Alternatively, and preferably, an end plate may be removed from the housing so as to allow the removal of the individual cells from the housing. Those cells can then be placed in a dishwasher, for example, to clean the collector plates. This may be accomplished without removing the housing from the system, thereby reducing complications and the labor involved in the disassembly and reinstallation.
In the process of removing the individual cells, it is relatively easy, after removing the end cover, to remove the cell adjacent thereto. However, in order to remove the other installed cell, it is necessary for an owner or serviceman to extend an arm into the opening and grasp the side of the cell in order to slide it out. This can be rather threatening and difficult because of the inability to see within the installed housing. Further, the cell is not likely to have a handle or the like that is easily grasped, so as to easily facilitate the removal of the cell unit, which can be relatively heavy.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved electrostatic air cleaner structure.
Another object of the present invention is the provision in an electrostatic air cleaner for easily removing a pair of side-by-side cells from a housing.
Yet another object of the present invention is the provision for an electrostatic air cleaner cell which is easily removed from its housing.
Still another object of the present invention is the provision for an electrostatic air cleaner structure which is economical to manufacture and effective and efficient in use.
These objects and other features and advantages become more readily apparent upon reference to the following description when taken in conjunction with the appended drawings.